China's Green Beat - Bioenergy in Yunnan

Yunnan China is a isolated region of China. The people in surrounding villages depend on firewood as the primary source of energy. Farmers spend large amounts of time collecting and using firewood to cook. Reducing the time to cook can increase the farmers time to develop other projects.

Biogas digesters are being used alongside new and improved stoves to increase the farmers technological abilities. The biogas generators can be vented into the stoves to be used as a natural and clean source of energy. These new technologies are saving the farmers 2/3 of the firewood they previously required.

Wood stoves cause a lot of eye irritations and can even lead to eye diseases. Wood stoves are only 10-15% efficient with much of the energy turning into smoke.

A typical cooking session in the winter will require 50 kilograms of wood to generate enough heat to cook food. The improved stoves only use 15 kilograms of fuel to cook 3 meals a day. This is a radical improved in rural tech in outer-lands China.

Not only are biogas digesters great to power local utilities uses, they are also a great alternative to fertilizers. The residue from the gas chambers can producer a base equally superior to most fertilizers. Rich with organic mass and nitrogen, it is also proving to be a cost effect compound for agricultural needs!